


Gotham Squad

by CrimeAlley1048



Category: Batfamily - Fandom, DCU (Animated), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-07-29
Packaged: 2018-04-11 20:18:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4450793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimeAlley1048/pseuds/CrimeAlley1048
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Justice League is under the control of Vandal Savage-- the team is on the run, and Robin and Artemis find themselves in Gotham, with Batman hot on their heels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gotham Squad

Okay, so the Justice League was after them. That was kind of a drag.  
But it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened, Dick figured, so there was no need to panic— not yet anyway. They mostly had it under control. For instance, they knew why the grownups were chasing them (Starotech, Vandal Savage, mind control), and they pretty much knew how to fix the problem. They were working on an antidote. They just had to stay alive until it was ready.  
So, yes, they were on the run, and yes, that sucked, but hey— it could be worse. These things happened. He wasn't dead yet.  
Dick adjusted his sunglasses and leaned back against the pillar he was using as cover, checking all his blind spots. They’d had a few near misses already. He needed to pay attention.  
The voice in his ear was making that a little bit harder than it could have been.  
“You know the sunglasses are making you stick out, right?” Artemis was on the roof, in her own lookout spot. “It’s getting dark. People are going to notice.”  
Dick wasn’t particularly worried. They were in Gotham, for God’s sake— this city had seen everything. A skinny teenager in a pair of sunglasses wasn’t about to throw anybody. As a matter of fact, it might help him blend in.  
“Are you listening to me?”  
“Yep,” Dick told her, leaning out from behind his pillar to check the street. “The shades make me shady. I got it.”  
He grinned at her sound of exasperation. “Also got a secret identity to protect here, so…”  
“The rest of us don’t bother.”  
“Yeah, well.” The street looked clear enough. “I was about to say ‘the rest of you don’t have Batman breathing down your neck,’ but actually—”  
“Do you see him?”  
“No.” Which was making him really, really nervous, to be honest. “You?”  
“Nothing. Do you think we lost him?”  
“I doubt it.” They weren’t one hundred percent certain about the Starotech stuff yet— maybe the League didn’t have their old memories— but if they did, well, there weren’t that many places you could hide from the Batman in Gotham. He could only think of the one.  
“We should go,” he told her. “Before he shows up again.”  
Artemis swung down from the rooftop, and they ducked into the shadows together, headed for a patch of woods. The sun was setting. On a normal day, Dick would be at the manor right about now, suiting up for patrol. He usually liked the dark— as the second half of the dynamic duo, it was kind of his birthright— but today, the dusk was intimidating. He half expected Batman to drop from every tree they passed underneath.  
Across the skyline, the batsignal flickered on. Great.  
“Are you gonna answer that?” Artemis pushed a branch out of her way, then sent it swishing back in his direction. He stepped aside.  
“I’m a little bit busy.” Gordon would have to manage on his own tonight, assuming Batman didn’t make an appearance. Which would be bad. “Have they finished the antidote yet?”  
“They’re still working.”  
“Oh.” They would stick to the plan then: keep moving, distract the JLA, wait for the others to pick them up. “That’s discouraging.”  
In front of him, Artemis stopped walking— she leaned back against a tree trunk and raised an eyebrow.  
“Don’t do it.”  
Too late. Dick grinned at her again; she slapped a hand over her eyes.  
“Hopefully there’ll be more _couraging_ news soon.”  
“Stop it.”  
“No, I like that one. It makes sense. Like, if there’s good news, it gives you courage, so —“  
“So it’s still not a word.”  
“If it has a prefix, I should be able to take it off!” They were moving again, almost at the edge of the woods. “Otherwise, I’m getting cheated out of a perfectly good expression, and that’s just wrong.”  
“There’s something wrong with _you_.”  
“Hey, I’m all about justice.” Dick stopped at the tree line. “We’re almost there.”  
“You’re more upset about grammar than the Justice League, under a villain’s control, trying to kill us. Should I be worried about you?”  
“What? Sometimes you gotta pick your battles.” Anyway, the League situation wasn’t that bad. They were doing well so far— this wasn’t on his list of Worst Days Ever yet, and if all went according to plan, it wouldn’t be. Also, this next bit was going to be fun.  
“Alright,” he told Artemis, gesturing to the building in front of them. “We’re going in there.”  
“In… in there?”  
“Mmhm.”  
“Are you serious?”  
“Yep.” Dick told her. He pointed at the lettering across the cornice: Gotham Academy. “It’s the only place in Gotham that I know better than Batman. Come on.”  
He ducked around the streetlight and headed for the door, trailing Artemis behind him. She grabbed his wrist.  
“Are you telling me that this is your school?”  
“Can neither confirm nor deny.”  
“Robin, this is _my_ school.”  
“I know.”  
“ _How_ do you know?”  
“I know everything. Well, pretty much everything.” He bent over the security pad. “Give me a minute.”  
“Do you follow me around? Real question.”  
“Not usually.” The light blinked green, and he pushed open the door. “Let’s go.”  
“That had better be a joke, or I’m— Robin!”  
Okay, that was unfortunate. When he turned around, Batman was standing underneath the the street lamp, centered in the puddle of light, watching them calmly. Dick didn’t know where he came from, but he knew how fast Bruce could move. They had seconds.  
He shoved Artemis through the door. “Run!”  
They were lucky it was a holiday. Inside, the school was almost completely dark— just the glow of the emergency exits to light the way. The two of them sprinted through the hallway, away from the front doors.  
“Head for the cafeteria!” Dick whispered. They could lose him on the passage to the East Annex, take the skybridge back to the main building, then shoot for the roof. The annex was the most confusing part of the school— no way Bruce could figure out where he was going. Dick used it twice every school day, and he knew Artemis did too.  
Yep, this was fine. They had this. All good. Even better, when their psychic link fizzled back on, and M’gann’s voice started speaking in his head.  
_We have the antidote! We’re coming to get you now._  
Dick turned to Artemis and mouthed “couraging.”  
“Shut up,” she mouthed back.  
They slid through the double doors into the cafeteria and ran for the annex, up the two flights of stairs between the ground floor and the skybridge. There was no sign of Bruce, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t right behind them.  
We should be on the roof in five minutes, he told M’gann. Be careful. Batman’s somewhere in the building.  
They paused at the edge of the skybridge, checking through the smudged glass for the super-cycle and the rest of the team. The rooftops were empty.  
There was a thud on the ceiling— the tail end of a kevlar cape swung past the windows.  
“Go!” They ran for the other end, into the main building, up another flight of stairs. They came out on the top floor, between the Latin rooms and the art studio. Behind them, there was the sound of shattering glass.  
Now might be a good time to start panicking.  
“There’s a balcony on the art room,” Dick told Artemis. “Climb onto the roof, wait for the team, come and find me in the west hall when they come. I’ve got Batman.”  
“Are you sure?”  
“Yeah.” It wasn’t like they were going to fight. He just needed to distract Bruce for a few minutes— he could do that. It would be fine.  
As they passed the art studio, Artemis ducked inside, and Dick continued down the hallway. He chose his own math classroom, flicked on the lights, and sank into a desk, throwing his feet across the bar. A few seconds later, Batman appeared at the door.  
“Hey,” Dick told him. He pulled off his sunglasses and gave Bruce a little wave. “Just so you know, the parent/teacher conference is next week. So you’re a little bit early.”  
Bruce didn’t say anything. Was he going to? He was talking earlier, back on Mount Justice, but that was before they realized something was wrong. Who knew what would happen now?  
“And no, I’m not failing any of my classes,” Dick continued. “It’s an attendance thing. Big shocker, I know, because I definitely come to school at _least_ twice a week. What else do they want?”  
Bruce stepped closer. He was almost within grabbing distance now, so Dick needed to move. He stood up from his desk and walked towards the dry erase board— he’d actually written most of the equations that had been left on it over the break.  
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me about this mind control stuff?” he asked, lifting an eraser off the ledge. “I think we got most of it, but details are important.”  
Nothing. He wasn’t really expecting that to work. Oh well.  
“Um… I’m guessing this is a no-name kind of situation? So, _Batman_ , I would really appreciate if you would snap out of this. If that’s possible.” He would also appreciate it if the team would hurry up.  
_How much longer?_  
 _We’re almost there._  
“I’d like to think you’re in there somewhere… I mean…” Dick took a deep breath. “You haven’t tried to kill me yet, so—”  
But then Bruce lunged at him, leaping across the classroom floor. Dick ran for the window— he just had to hope the others were ready for him.  
He had a momentary flashback to one of the safety drills they ran every month or so: “In case of emergency, throw a desk through the window to break the glass.” Okay then.  
The window shattered, and Dick flung himself onto the roof, racing for the super-cycle that pulled up on the balcony. He made it just in time, with Batman right behind him. As they took off, he could see Bruce silhouetted clearly in the window— Dick waved to him again as he pushed his glasses back onto his face.  
Okay, so maybe this was a bad day after all.


End file.
